A surface-discharge-type alternating-current plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as “PDP”) has two opposing glass substrates placed on either side of a discharge-gas-filled discharge space, row electrode pairs extending in the row direction and regularly arranged in the column direction on one of the glass substrates, column electrodes extending in the column direction and regularly arranged in the row direction on the other glass substrate, and unit light emission areas (discharge cells) thus formed in matrix form in positions corresponding to the intersections between the row electrode pairs and the column electrodes in the discharge space.
Further, in the PDP, a magnesium oxide (MgO) film, which has the function of protecting the dielectric layer and the function of emitting secondary electrons into the unit light emission area, is formed on a portion of a dielectric layer facing the unit light emission areas, the dielectric layer being provided for covering the row electrodes or the column electrodes.
As a method for forming the MgO film in the manufacturing process for PDPs as described above, the adoption of a screen printing technique of applying a coating of a paste containing an MgO powder mixture onto a dielectric layer is considered on the grounds of simplicity and convenience as described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 6-325696, for example.
However, in the case of using a paste containing a polycrystalline floccule type magnesium oxide obtained by heat-treating and purifying magnesium hydroxide, to form an MgO film of the PDP by a screen printing technique as described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 6-325696, the resulting discharge characteristics of the PDP are merely largely equal to or slightly greater than those provided in the case of using an evaporation technique to form the magnesium oxide film.
An urgent need arising from this is to form an MgO film capable of yielding a greater improvement in the discharge characteristics in the PDP.
An object of the present invention is to solve the problem associated with PDPs having a conventional magnesium oxide film formed therein as described above.